Posts from the ‘Rockin’ Sock Club’ Category

Madrona Fiber Arts Festival is next weekend. If you have not heard it will be the last time this wonderful celebration of fiber arts will be happening. Suzanne and Corny have decided that they are ready to retire and move on.

I have heard that John Malarkey (weaver extraordinaire) is going to run some sort of fiber event at the sane time and in the same place. It will be interesting to see how that manifests.

I have loved being a part of Madrona and having such a wonderfully well run and loved fiber event so close to home. I have met so many great people and learned so much from the teachers, vendors, students and form Suzanne and how she ran Madrona. She has such a big heart and it shows in how people feel about Madrona.

I am sad at this ending but understand the need to move on. I made a special colorway based on the color of the Madrona tree that has been the logo for years now. I don’t mind telling you that it was not an easy one to translate on to yarn but I feel like I got it! Whatcha think?

Madrona Fiber Arts Tree

Madrona 2019

Madrona 2019

The Fiber Gallery will have our yarns as they have for the past few years. So do check out their booth!!

We have not one but two brand new designs from the oh so talented Meaghan Schmaltz ~The Unapologetic Knitter. She has designed a lovely everyday kind of cardigan all cozy and warm perfect for these snowy winter days we are having!

The Everyday Cardigan by Meaghan Schmaltz knit in our Silky Victoria in the colorway Motley Huu

And… if that was not enough she’s also designed this lovely wrap, Back on Track Shawl, knit in both our soon to be discontinued BFL Sport ( colorway: Mica) and our Silky Victoria ( colorway: Cranberry Bogged).

photo credits: Meaghan Schmaltz

The Fiber Gallery will have all these samples (and many more) with them so do check their booth out.

Meaghan has is kindly offering a 10% off discount on both patterns good Thursday February 14th until Sunday the 17th. Code is: TUKLUVSBMFA

Safe travels to all of you going. It looks like we are going to have some intense winter weather for the next week. We most definitely have our share here already which is going to make work this week a little challenging.

Shipping Update: We are still playing catch up. We’ve started shipping out the last shipment of the 2018 RSC and our online order for STRL including the Anniversary Trios. We are also working on the Color Club and the last skein of the School of Yarn. It’s a lot.

Our BFL Sport Special was a HUGE success and we are doing out very best dyeing these also as we catch on on previous orders now that we have the sock yarn coming in. It’s a whole lot of juggling, it makes my head hurt! I know I have said many times but I am going to say it again because it is true. All of us here at Blue Moon appreciate your support and patience but no one more than myself. It has been beyond stressful and quite honestly scary. Now that the yarn is flowing in it has put us in one dye crunch to catch up and stay current . So we are going to ask you to hang in with us for a wee but longer.

The Vancouver Shawl KALwill be at the end of February so we have time to get you your yarn. I am hoping that the weather does not change that but I will keep you posted.

I did something that I have wanted to do for awhile now in order to support more of my creative vision and self and to build on our Blue Moon community. Coloring inside and outside the lines!!! Check it out! If have ideas about what you would like to see there please do let me know. The video aspect will be the most challenging for me on a personal level but I also think real fun!!!

A reminder of the specials that are going on right now.

BFL Sport: The price that you see on the website it the marked down price and we are almost out and when it is gone it is gone.

Seduction: Same is true with our Seduction yarn. Price marked is the sale price and it good while supplies last

Panda: Is a new yarn we are considering adding to our line of yarns. We are on the fence and are hoping for your input. The price you see is an introductory price.

Targhee Bulky: Unfortunately another yarn that is being discontinued by the mill. I know…it’s super sad. On this one there is a code to use. TGB19 15% off.

Okay that is all for now. I have get a newsletter out and shovel some snow.

Well, my friends, we have have one storage pod empty and the other half empty. Holy moly – what an undertaking. It’s amazing how much stuff can collect when you’re not looking. Hell, even if you are looking and are just busy. You know how it goes. “I’ll just put this here and then come back and sort it all out later when I have time.” hahaha. And then the next thing you know, your closet is overflowing … or your bookshelves or both of your storage pods, as the case may be!

Anyway, if anything this Pod-KonMari process has been an interesting trip down memory lane. I am sorry to say we are not holding everything and thanking it.… well, maybe the knit samples. Oh my goodness.

Karen is here for the weekend so we can work on a bunch of Club and school stuff and do some planning. Last night we dug through four of those big Rubbermaid bins! And oh my goodness: the things we used to knit! I will post pictures over the next few weeks. It’s pretty interesting and was certainly entertaining after a pretty stressful week.

Felted Bag in Icelandic wool – we made tons of these way back when.

Sock Summit notebooks – we found cases of these! Hey – this year is the 10th Anniversary!

Rio rayon slub yarn that I dyed way back when for scarf kits!

I have lots and lots and lots of socks! Some pairs and some singles and we are thinking up some de-stashing fun for those. So look on Instagram for our sock de-stash party.

We also found a number of panels of grid-wall and extra hooks leftover from our Sock Summit days. We are selling those locally, since who needs 80 grid-wall slats? (80! I kid you not!) If you are local to the Portland area and interested, you can email info@bluemoonfiberarts.com for details.

Our BFL Sport Farewell Special is still running and lots of you are supporting our send-off, so thank you. It does make it a little more palatable (if no less sad). We are starting to run a little low, though, so if you have yet to order and would like to play along, now would be the time to do so. Samantha (the designer) is thrilled we are going to do a Vancouver Shawl KAL! And as ever, I am available for color consulting: send me an e-mail and we can chat color options!

As I mentioned in the newsletter today, we will not be going to Stitches West this year. It’s a hard decision and not one we made lightly. I do know that we are not the only ones making this choice as hard as it is. I love Stitches West and being back there last year was all kinds of wonderful. And… I have pretty much been looking forward to this year’s show since the last one ended. However, with all of the yarn delays and being behind because of them, we decided it was best to sit this one out as we get caught up (and also ensure that we don’t get in this position again anytime soon!!)

YARN AND SHIPPING UPDATE

What is being held up by the Sock Yarn delay:

• Rockin’ Sock Club, School of Yarn and Out of the Hue Club.
• Any website orders that are for only Socks that Rock.
• If you placed a mixed order (Socks that Rock plus other bases), we are shipping out partial orders with the yarn we have available; the Socks that Rock will ship out separately.
• The Anniversary package was held up by the bags, and now that the bags are coming in, the yarn has become the issue! Of course it is. For those of you who are next in line for your Anniversary packages, we are offering other yarn base choices as substitutes for the Socks that Rock in your package. I am in the process of emailing those of you who are in the queue.

Mills are not the best at time frames or communication. We are passing along the information we get, as we get it. I expect to start seeing sock yarn this week.

Besides our Socks that Rock delay, I have some other yarn news to share to keep you in the loop and to also to share with you all where we find ourselves in the yarn industry right now.

As you may have noticed, Tigger is currently hidden on the website. We are almost out and the stock we do have on hand is dedicated to School of Yarn and a few LYS orders. As of right now, the news from the broker is that the mill that made Tigger won’t continue to do so. It is a high-energy cabled yarn, which is not the easiest to make to begin with. When you add in the factor that most of the mill equipment in this country is pretty old, that makes it even more challenging to make. We are looking at other sources and options and I will keep you posted on that.

Our lot of Single Silky Targhee is running a little low; we are trying to reorder that and coming up with the some of the same issues as with the Tigger. Oh, and did I mention that we are also running up against low amounts of Targhee wool in the States?

The mill that has been making our Silky Victoria has declined to do so. (Are you sensing a theme here, cause I certainly am.) So it will now be made elsewhere, but it takes time to get a yarn started at a new mill (lots of samples, testing and such). We have our needles crossed that this will be a seamless transition!

I believe that we are going to be seeing more and more of this mill-shuffling in the future; as a result, we will be having to plan farther and farther ahead than we have in quite a while (if ever).

COMMUNICATION AND CUSTOMER SERVICE

At the moment I am your lead in customer service (with Kalia as backup in shipping).

I am answering emails as soon as I can, usually within 24 hours unless they come in on the weekend. (Which a lot do, since most us all work during the week.) I do work through the weekend, but sometimes I won’t finish answering a weekend’s worth of e-mails until the beginning of the week.

I update this blog every weekend (there’s also a blog for the Rockin’ Sock Club, which gets updated less often, as necessary). Also once a week (usually on Fridays), I send out an e-mail newsletter through Constant Contact. The newsletter goes out to all our mailing lists every week; however, because these are bulk emails, it is possible that your firewalls see them as spam and aren’t letting them through on your end. It happens.

What I do see (by looking at the analytics on the back end here) is that while there are bounce-backs, a lot of people don’t click to open and read the newsletter. And hey – I understand why. As fiber-loving, creating people, we are inundated with email newsletters all the time. But if you’re looking for information about yarn status and general news about what’s going on over here, I am reaching out with this information in several ways – it’s in all those places for you to see, in addition to my being here on email.

We know a lot of you are on social media in all sorts of places these days; and thank you for sharing your love of Blue Moon there! But we need to remind you that Social Media is not someplace we can or will do customer service. There are just too many places to keep track of, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Ravelry. Some large companies employ one or more people just to monitor their social media feeds! And even then, the folks who work on all that would likely refer customer service questions back to the people who are next to the yarn, or on the computers with the orders, to answer specific questions.

For customer service questions and issues (order status, color questions, yarn updates), please communicate with us directly via e-mail. In an e-mail conversation, we can address your order questions and concerns directly and personally (in a way social media threads can’t support).

If you ever e-mail us and don’t get a reply in a day or two, please check to see that our replies aren’t getting filtered out or caught in your firewalls. When in doubt, try sending your e-mail again from another address (gmail addresses almost always get through!). We are doing our best to get you the information you want right away.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we get out footing back.

On this day of feasting and giving thanks I am counting my blessings like the purls they truly are while remembering that this day also holds the shadows it was built upon.

So much love to all of you creative makers we are so very grateful for who you are, what you make and blessed to serve you in color and yarn!

We thought we’d show out gratitude this weekend of by offering a 15% discount on all yarns and rovings! Good now until Tuesday the 27th! Code is: givingthanks18

We also have a few gifts for you. All orders that come in starting now and going until Tuesday November 27th will include both of these gifts!!

The first one is 20 grams of dyed silk hankies for you to knit or spin with. You can knit right from the hankie and the fabric it creates is super soft, textured and just plain lovely! We will include directions on how to prep them for knitting! Your color will be a surprise and I promise they are all stunning!! You’ll love these. I have a hat I knit out of these that I wore during chemo. So soft and warm and great for a newly bald head or any head really!

The other gift is one of our Blue Moon Golden Tickets. These are discount tickets and they range in discount from 10% to 40%. We put them in an empty dye pot and choose randomly as we add a ticket to your order. These tickets are good for a 2 time use at any point in 2019!

Seasonal Colorway Shift!!!!!

We’ve taken down for a rest some of our Autumn colorways and have added a few wintery and holiday ones. If there are any winter and holiday hues you would like to see that are not here please do let us know!!

We are shipping out tons of yarn today and tomorrow! I pick up more mugs for the Anniversary trio and we will be getting these out to0! One of our lovely mug makers had a family loss this weekend so if we could all take a moment to send her some love!

I got to spend the day with most of my family today which was heart warming and so rejuvenating I hope you all got to spend time with those you love. The holidays can be a hard and challenging time for some of us so keep your eyes ad ear open for someone who might need a lift in spirit!

I love designing yarns. I love spinning yarn. I love testing each new lot of yarn for consistency. I love reeling yarn. I love winding it into little balls or big cakes. I really love making yarn colorful by dyeing it. I love all the weights and measure of yarn. I love getting to know all about a yarns story and what it wants to be. I love matching yarn to project. I love swatching! I really do love swatching to make sure I havethe right yarn and gauge for my project. I love that there is a worsted weight yarn and a worsted spun one. I love that a lot of yarn is twisted, a bit like me! I love the diversity of what we can use to create yarn. I really love wool yarn from all those lovely sheepies! I love the feel of yarn when I am making and wearing it. I love really love the smell of it. I love the people I work with in the yarn industry. I love the mechanics of the yarn industry and it’s history. I love all the fiber artists I get to work with who also love yarn! I love that working with yarn and creating beauty is good for our brains, hearts and souls. I love that yarn brings us together ~ a stunning tapestry of a community ~ loop by loop!!

All for which is really great to remember today on YARN Dayand also, at a time when our industry and world is experiencing some trying times.

Today we are going to celebrate the love and yes, power of YARN!

We are going to start with some fun!!

Insta-Game ~ (Facebook) with prizes!

I am going to post my little “what I love about yarn” paragraph to Instagram and would love for you to comment as to what you love about yarn!! I will randomly pick 10 of you who comment there with your “share yarn love” and send each a skein of Socks that Rock. Oh I will also post this to facebook so if you comment there it also counts toward being eligible for a prize.

We are also offering a YARN LOVE Discount

Starting right now (Saturday, October 13th) we are offering a 13% discount on All YARNS good until midnight Sunday (Pacific Time). Use the code: YARNLOVEDAY18when you check out to get your discount!

I also would love to see what you are knitting with your Blue Moon yarns. If you could post a photo to instagram with the hastags #bluemoonfiberarts and #yarnday so we all can see your creations that would be so wonderful. I can’t tell you how much it brightens our day when you share what you have made with us. After all you are why we do what we do. Otherwise we are just making and coloring yarn to hang in the barn and that is kinda silly!

Here is this years Rhinebeck 2018 colorway. I chose to go Autumn hues this year. You can find this colorway along with other of our yarns and tons of samples (including Carol Fellers Tangential Blues pullover) at The Buffalo Wool Company’s booth. Their booth is over by the souvenir shop ans 2 story barn. 22D/OD22-01 Also seriously check out their socks and the colorway I dyed for them on 2 of their lovely yarns!

Everyone have loads of fun!!

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Shipping updates:

All the Carol Feller KAL yarn that has been ordered has been dyed, dried and shipped!

We started shipping RSC ( sock club) on Friday and will continue on Monday!

Moon Shadow Anniversary Trio ~ Queen Bee promised the bags this week. After we ship those out we will let you know when the next batch goes.

Out of the Hue will also ship next week!

As I have said quite a bit during the past few months I am very grateful for you understanding and patience. I am doing my very best juggling dealing with all of the yarn stuff and communicating with you about where we are. We are a very small company and a little smaller than normal right now. So if you have not heard back from em right away it is not because I do not value you. It is seriously just juggling all the yarn balls and making it all work. I personally truly value each and every one of you. I love being a dyer but I also equally love serving you!!

Look at that, October sure sneaked right in the back door didn’t it. I feel like I totally lost the last week of September. Where did it go?

Anyway since it is October and October is Breast Cancer Awareness month. As most of you know I am a breast cancer survivor. I am the daughter of a breast cancer survivor. I have friends who are survivors and ones whom I have lost. At this point in time I think that most of us have been touched by breast cancer in one way or another. The strides that have been made in breast cancer research over the past few years are just astounding.

We are donating, as we do every October, 10% of sale to breast cancer research. I have creating a few new colorways in honor of all us breast cancer warriors! As I posted last week one of my best friends passed 5 years ago on September 26 so the F*CK Breast Cancer is especially for her!

F*CK Breast Cancer!

#survivor

PINK

There are also quite a few more very pink colorways on the website. One of my favorites is Tit4Tat.

Despite yarn delays and sickness we will have everyone that is part of the Carol Feller KAL their yarn by the end of this week!

All of the fibershare packages will be out on time!

RSC pattern and dyer’s notes are up and the yarn will ship at the end of this week as will the Out of the Hue Club

We are waiting on bags and mugs which we expect this week. We expected the bags last week but they ran into a snag with a tag they needed to finish them.

Thank you so very much for all of your patience, understanding and sharing. So very many of you emailed and called with positive thoughts and kind words and you did this very tired dyer’s heart good!

Oh and all of the Fair Isle books have shipped and the pdf links have been emailed!

We have to more KALS coming down the road pretty soon! One very Midwinter Moon Solstice KAL with Larissa Brown in November which this moonie is very excited about.

And another one that we are going to do with Qualyn (QUOE )which is the La Vie Boheme CAL~KAL. You can knit-a-long or crochet-a-long and make your very own winged shawl! we will have color combo’s for both of these KALS!! So look for them soon.

oh and…if I will be at Coastal Yarns in Cannon Beach the first weekend in November! I will be there for knit night on Friday and then all day Saturday with a trunk show, a yarn tasting and door prizes!! Oh we will have a special Stormy Weather Art Festival colorway!

It has been a week for most of us and as a sexual abuse survivor and a retired therapist who worked with survivors I am still reeling with all of this. As a self care measure for all of us I am not going to go into that right now.

Wednesday the 26th marked five years since I lost my best friend to breast cancer. We had been thick as thieves since we met when we were 14 years old and her family moved up the street from mine. She was such a light in my life and in the world at large. Beauty, strength and wisdom and such a huge giving heart! Our connection was deep and true and our lives intersected and paralleled from the moment we set eyes on each other. We both moved to Portland Oregon after growing up on the East Coast. We had our first born 6 months a part and…ironically I was diagnosed with my breast cancer 6 months after she passed. So most definitely connected on a pretty significant level. It is a loss I feel every single day but especially so this week.

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And.. because the powers that be have a wicked sense of humor, two of my dyers were out all week with some bug. Leaving the dyeing to me and our brand new dyer, Lindsey!! Before I go any further I want to thank Lindsey, Sarah and Kalia for seriously stepping up and helping do what needed to get done, above and beyond!

So I am just not feeling it right now and for that I am truly sorry. My uplift is seriously on the down low. So my dear fibery friends I am going to fill you in on where we are on orders and such. Also, we’ll talk a little bit of some goodness coming up very soon!

Unless something else goes down we should have all of the KAL yarn that has been ordered to date today shipped out by the end of next week. I cannot wait to see your sweaters!! So many lovey hues. As much as I am loving all the Green Wings I will say I am looking forward to seeing the ones in Motley Hue and Griege. Oh and Mermaid Tears!! My goodness.

Our CAKE DK and Silky Victoria is back in stock (yay!!!) and we have them dyed so they will be shipping out (if they have not already) early next week.

After this week we will be very close to current with online orders.

Because of the delays we’ve experienced we are just behind. We are working so very hard to get caught up and get things out at least close to what we promised. It is the end of September and we should be shipping out RSC and Out of the Hue. They are both going to be a week late. Had this week gone as planned with a full team Blue Moon then things would be different but it did not.

I will be sending our group updates to the Sock Club , Out of the Hue Club and our Moon Shadow Anniversary Trio separately today or Monday. I teach all day tomorrow and am going to take this afternoon off for a little R&R with my son and his wife. ( Oh and there is still room in the class if you want to join us!)

Oh and before I forget. We are cancelling the Autumn Dye Day Event. Not enough people signed up to make it a feasible and affordable thing for us. Yes, a little disappointed!!

I want to thank every for your patience and grace!!

Seriously you are the very best! I am not a fan of all of this! I like serving knitters to the best of our ability and this most certainly fits my vision of that!

Fun things coming our way!!

New colorways!! I am going to make this happen this week if I have to be the midnight dyer.

We have at least 2 KALs coming this Fall and Winter. One where we can knit our very own wings (dragon or bat)!! And then a lovely lunar one with Larissa Brown.

I will be at Coastal Yarns the first weekend in November for Canon Beach’s Stormy Weather Art Festival. There will be a special colorway and knit to go with it!! We’ll have fun, games and door prizes! Also a trunk show and yarn tasting. All kinds of knit fun!

The Buffalo Wool Company will have our yarns at Rhinebeck so do look for them. And yes, of course there will be a special Blue Moon Rhinebeck colorway.

I am sure there is more that I am leaving out. I promised my son I would meet then at 3:00 so I need to get moving!

Autumn is most definitely in the air now. It’s cooler most days and certainly so in the evening. The leaves are starting to turn and you can just smell that crisp note that says Autumn on the breezes. Also…there’s rain which I am thrilled to see and hear!

First I want to thank you for all of the great feedback on what I wrote about price increases and the changes in the wool industry. From all of the emails I received it seems like information that you would like more of so I will bee adding more of that kind of thing into my blog posts! I really appreciate you feedback and response. It’s hard to know who is interested and who is not. We are in a time where we are all super busy and distracted and we don’t read as much as we used to.

We spend a lot more time answering emails these days with questions or information that I have sent in a newsletter or put here on the blog and on facebook, instagram and RAV. I am not complaining about answering emails because I do love interacting with all of you. I love you guys! That said a few of the emails we get will start with something about how we did not put info out when we did. If I had a wish it is that we read more so we were more informed!

Okay that is my Autumn wish. My blog post is short this week because I am trying to get order out as fast as we can and work on color club and sock club and clean the chicken coop and you get the gist!

I made new colorways!!!!

Ring of Fire

Night Unicorn

Harvest Moondance

Grimm Reaper

Fall Back

Equinoxed

Easy Breezy Beautiful Colorway

I am so in love with all of these new hues I would like to just sit and knit all weekend especially with Equinoxed!! Move over Pond Scum because there is a new colorway in town! Equinoxed just makes my muddy little heart sing!!

There will be more new colorways in the weeks to come. I am still fine tuning the Coven which are tinted greys and should be up sometime next week probably towards the end of the week.

I an also playing with a series of Black that have other subtle color notes in them. I know!!!!

So a confession and a question. I have discovered fantasy football!! ( That is the confession!) My son and daughter-in-law are into it. I spend most Sundays with them hanging out watching football and cooking. So when my DIL asked me to join her league I was thrilled and did so. I had been wanting to join what looked like all kinds of fun and you know what? It really is. I am thinking we might need a knitters league or two. Can you imagine? Maybe there already is.

So I am working on football team colors. I know there are football watching knitters and crocheters.My question is: Are you interested in football team themed colorways? If so which is your team? What would you like to see??

Oh so I am going to be sending out a newsletter and few themed bulk emails this weekend so look for them they might have info in them you are looking for!

I am going to leave you with this exciting news! Save the date!! I am so excited about how my dear friend Ben is expanding the wonderful Stitches events to include more of our crafting interests!!

Oh my goodness there is so very much going on I do not quite know where to start. I feel a little bit like the white rabbit in Alice and Wonderland.

I know… let’s start with some good news. I think I mentioned to the sock club and maybe here too about the neighbor trouble I have been having with the people who live next door to me with whom I share a drive. It quite very intense over the past few months and honestly scary. I love here alone so… .

Anyway last weekend they put their house up for sale and it has sold!!! It sold in like 3 days which is kind of crazy for this neck of the woods.

So I feel kind of like I have my own personal miracle. I have lived here for almost 20 years. I love it. It is my haven and I was honestly considering moving me and Blue Moon elsewhere it was so bad. So this is just the very very best thing and I am so grateful!! I hope they are happier in there new home.

Our yarns are arriving and we are getting orders out! We are so very sorry for the delay but truly it was out of our control and we are doing our very best! I have been doing this for a long time and these things just happen. This is so much better than the time the sock yarn showed up and it was not my yarn and I had to send it back and cancel the shows we were going to. Oy!! I was thinking the other day that I should pitch a yarn related sitcom based on what I have seen and experienced over these 18 years. Hell just the sock club and bank drama would be worth a few episodes.

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We have contacting all orders past our promised time frame. So if you have not heard from us we got junk mailed out. If you need your yarn asap let us know so we can see what we can do. Our supplier is working diligently to make this all better.

I have added another DYE CAMP Session for this fall so check that out! I might add another but I need to check my schedule. I am pretty booked out this fall.

I will be teaching a 2 day dye class at the Stitchin’ Post on September 7th and 8th. I am also giving a talk on the 6th about what inspires us. I’m honored and excited to be working with the lovely and talented ladies of the Stitchin’Post. I think there is still room if you want to immerse yourself in color for a few days in Sisters Oregon.

On the following weekend I will be at All Wound UP in Edmonds Washington on Saturday the 15th from 12:00 to 3:00. I will have a trunk show and a yarn tasting. I would love to see you and any show and tell you might have.

We do love our Dye Day that we have with the barn sale!! A whole bunch of you have requested that we do more so… we have added and Autumn one!!! I know. I’m so excited. I had so much fun at this last one I did not want it to end. I decided to have it October 20th which is a Saturday . I tis the weekend of Rhinebeck so those of us who cann’t attend Rhinebeck can console ourselves with a little color and yarn. Since it is my fav time of year we will have some hot cider and pumpkin type treats and will dress according for the season. We are a bunch of dye witches after all! So bring a picnic and come join us for the day. Maybe we can even bob for some apples!! I wish I had a corn maze!!! Anyway these fill up fast so do not wait!! Also this one registration fee is a wee bit more to cover costs that the barn sale aspect usually covers.

You might notice that we have done a color shift! Yup We have have added HOLIDAY HUES for the next week. We’ve been getting a fair amount of requests so we have added quite a few in both the Multicolor and Bespeckled color categories! All of which are returning hues! New ones will come a bit later. In a week we will take these down an put up our Autumn/Halloween line up. I would put a list of them here but I think they are pretty obvious by their names when you shop by Colorway! So many Gnome colorways for the holidays.

Photo Credit: Pom Pom Quartely

Have you seen the new all about the Moon Issue of Pom Pom Quarterly?!! It is stunning. I want to knit just about everything in it! Truly!! I mean I am all about the moon especially this year so this just made my heart sing. We’ve gotten quite a few requests for color suggestions for that STUNNING cardigan in the front cover. Ixchel by Catherine Clark ! So beautiful. I am working on color pairing suggestions right now. Also…I will finally be adding to the website that stunning yellow (Sunbeam) and a this blue black I have been trying to photograph for a month now so look for those this week! Our yarns bases that I recommend based on the gauge they suggest are pretty much any of the fingering weight ones but most especially Cloud 9, La Luna Fingering, and Socks that Rock right off the top of my head. I think I am going to knit mine in Ravenscroft and then go pale blue grey for the moons instead of the gold. Still musing it over!

Okay I am sure there are things I am forgetting! We were short handed this week due to vacations and such. So I am spending this weekend playing catch-up.

We will be shipping both the sock club and the School of Yarn this week!! Okay going to post and send out newsletter which is at least a day late!

Oh I remembered!!

I uncovered about 60 skeins of TASY BOO so if you missed out first go around there are more and then…they will be gone.

Also if you are anywhere near The Fold in Marengo Illinois and have felt you miss out on our Annual Barn Sale well now is your chance! We have shipped her quite a bit of sale yarns for her Labor Day Sale which she is running right now. She will have these up this week and they will be there as long as they last. She also has quite a few other bargains going on!! Also give Toni and Al a hug for me!!

I am a HUGE Star Wars fan, nerd, geek, freak…whatever you want to call it. So this is one of my days! And add in the May release of the new movie that looks to be packed with all kinds of wonder. I’m so excited. Solo!!!! Seriously!!! Okay so with all of this love it’s quite amazing that I do not have one Star Wars colorway, not a one my friends. What is with that. I think my love is so huge I’m a little afraid of not doing it justice and letting my Star War heroes down… maybe? I going with that, it feels right. Obviously this needs to be rectified and equally as obvious is that I’m going to need some help. So my knitterly friends who are maybe as Star War obsessed ( you know you are) as I am ~ let’s do this.

Please in the comments section here share with me one of your fav Star Wars movies, moments, heroes, villans….anything goes. I will need a description that shares what speaks to you so I can capture that in color with yarn. I would like to release these before the movie comes out so… we do not have a whole lot of time. ( I do not have a whole lot of time.) Actually…I just remembered I have done a Vader colorway! We will not discuss that this is the only one I have done. It says nothing about me at all! ( lol) It was for Eat Sleep Knit. Anyway… .

Please share. If I pick yours to create you will get a skein of what we come up with together!! Yay!! I have a full dye staff now so this will happen!!! If you do not want to comment you can send me an email at info@bluemoonfiberarts.com. Please title it Star Wars in the subject line of the email. Thanks for your creative input! I so appreciate it! I do love creating color together. If we could get these in by Wednesday of htis coming week that would be all kinds of awesome!

Maryland Sheep and Wool is upon us. Who is going?? I so wish I was. One of these days! I have been getting photos of the booth all day. The Buffalo Wool Co and Toni have done an amazing job setting everything us an making the yarn we dyed look beautiful!!

I could NOT love this more!! Toni and Ron and Theresa are some of the best people I know. So generous and kind and funny and kinda sassy and…the list goes on and on. What a power trio!! I am a lucky dyer indeed!

Plushy !!

Soft Rock and Fadient kKits

Just a Phase scarf by Karen Alfke in A Total Eclipse of the Sun

and a little more Plushy!! Just a Phase in Dark Side of Blue Moon!

We sent so much wonderful yarn! I hope everyone has a wonderful show and all kinds of sheepy fun!

RSC: My dear notorious friends if you have not downloaded or accessed your pattern from RAV you patter if you could please do so soon. We noticed that there was some browser issues with Firefox. I just downloaded it and then hit the link and it all worked fine. Of course you can also use another browser.

School of Yarn: We have had some internet issues this week. Thank you Century Link. Don’t even get me started on this. Anyway most of them shipped this week the rest will ship early nest week and you should all have your pdf’s!! Oh Silkworm!

I will be at Stash on Corvalis next Saturday the 12th from noon until 4 with a small pop-up and some samples and my very opinionated self. I would LOVE to see you! Please come by and hang out and see what we are up to. If you have knits to share I would LOVE to see them!

Check out the top scroll bar for my not-so-secret anymore project I have been working on with oh, so creative and lovely Valori Wells!

Both of our beloved Blue Moon team goddesses Karen Alfke and Maggie Baird have birthdays this weekend! Maggie’s is today and Karen’s is on Sunday!! Happiest of birthday dear lovely friends!!!

Last year due to the wild fires and the wild life that was seeking other ground I lost my flock of chickens. Super sad! I decided to wait until this spring to replace them which is what we are in the process of doing. These are Copper Marans which lay beautiful dark brown eggs. Today I pick up a few more that lay blue and green eggs so that when they breed they make olive eggs!!! I know I just can’t resist the whole color thing no matter what.

These little babies are so sweet and cuddly. And….they love wool!! Who knew?!

The one in the right was obviously over come with her love or wool and let’s be real warmth that she just fell right to sleep!! So cute. When I brought them into the barn yesterday it was all ooohs and ahhhs and squeals of delight. I think after the winter we’ve had here these babies are going to be some serious therapy for us all. I am just going to wanr you now there are going to be tons of pictures!! So be prepared.

It’s time to change up the colors. It’s actually past time but I wanted to make sure we were at least close to being caught up on orders before we made this change. This week we will be caught up!! At least that is the plan. I swear that if I was just starting a business and experienced the 6 to 8 months we’ve just had I would consider maybe not. However, I have been doing this a very very long time and am going with the whole do your very best and this too shall pass!!

So here’s a lit of the colorways that I put up this morning and ones I took down.

New colorways will be coming in the next few weeks so enjoy these lovelies until then. They are some of my favorites!

All kinds of wonderful Spring hues. If there is one of our Spring colorways that you’d liek to see come out the the spa let us know!

As I said we will be caught op on orders this week!

Thank you all so very very much for your understanding and patience!

Sock Club is shipping!!! The pattern page is up. Dyer’s Notes to follow on Monday along with the rest of the packages shipping out. We held some back at the request of our under staffed PO.

We will be closing down sock club sign-ups next Friday. So if you have been waiting until the very last moment we are there.

Maryland Sheep and Wool is quickly approaching and boy do we have an exciting surprise for you!! I will fill you in on the details next week. Yes, I am taunting you maybe just a wee bit! Meanwhile this is the artwork they have chosen for the year so this is what our colorway will be based on. Actually this year there will be this special colorway and at least one Maryland themed one. I am from Maryland so am embracing my roots a bit. If you have thoughts I would love to hear them!!

Okay I am sure I am forgetting things but I know the newsletter has left and I want this up since I have not posted in awhile.

I took a few days off last week and part of this week and went to the home of my heart for some much needed regrouping and honestly sleeping.